Adjust saturation and hue

The Hue/Saturation command adjusts the hue (color), saturation (purity), and lightness of the entire image or of individual color components in an image.

Use the Hue slider to add special effects, to color a black and white image (like a sepia effect), or to change the range of colors in a portion of an image.

Changing colors in an image using the Hue/Saturation command

A. Original B. Entire
image changed to sepia using the Colorize option C. Magenta
colors targeted in the Edit menu and changed using the Hue slider

Use the Saturation slider to make colors more vivid or more muted. For example, you could add a color punch to a landscape by saturating the colors in it. Or, tone down a distracting color, like a vivid red sweater in a portrait.

Before and after adjusting color saturation

Use the Lightness slider with the other adjustments to lighten or darken a portion of an image. Take care not to use it on an entire image—this adjustment reduces the overall tonal range.

Change color saturation or hue

The
two color bars in the dialog box represent the colors in their order
on the color wheel. The upper bar shows the color before the adjustment;
the lower bar shows how the adjustment affects all hues at full
saturation.

In the Edit drop-down menu, choose which colors to adjust:

Choose Master to adjust all colors at once.

Choose one of the other preset color ranges listed
for the color you want to adjust. An adjustment slider appears between
the color bars, which you can use to edit any range of hues.

For Hue, enter a value or drag the slider until the colors
appear as you want.

The values displayed in the text box reflect the number of degrees of rotation around the color wheel from the pixel’s original color. A positive value indicates clockwise rotation, a negative value counterclockwise rotation. Values range from –180 to +180.

For Saturation, enter a value or drag the slider to the right to increase the saturation or to the left to decrease it. Values range from –100 to +100.

For Lightness, enter a value or drag the slider to the right to increase the lightness or to the left to decrease it. Values range from –100 to +100. Be careful when using this slider on an entire image. It will reduce the tonal range of the overall image.

If
you modify the adjustment slider so that it falls into a different
color range, the name changes to reflect this. For example, if you
choose Yellow and alter its range so that it falls in the red part
of the color bar, the name changes to Red 2. You can convert up
to six of the individual color ranges to varieties of the same color range
(for example, Red 1 through Red 6).

Note:

By default, the color
range selected when you choose a color component is 30° wide, with
30° color fall-off on either side. Setting the fall-off too low
can produce banding in the image.

To edit the range by choosing colors from the image, select the color picker, and click the image. Use the color picker + tool to add to the range; use the color picker – tool to subtract from the range.

While the color picker tool is selected, you can also press Shift to add to the range or press Alt (Option in Mac OS) to subtract from it.

Adjust the color of skin tone

The Adjust Color For Skin Tone
command adjusts the overall color in a photo to bring out more natural
skin tones. When you click an area of skin in the photo, Photoshop Elements adjusts the skin tone—as well
as all other colors in the photo. You can manually adjust the brown
and red colors separately to achieve the final color you want.

Original (top), and after adjusting skin tone (bottom)

Open the photo and select the layer that needs correction.

Choose Enhance > Adjust Color >
Adjust Color For Skin Tone.

Click an area of skin.

Photoshop Elements automatically
adjusts the colors in the image. Changes might be subtle.

Note:

Make
sure Preview is selected so that you can see the color changes as
they occur.

(Optional) Drag any of the following sliders to fine-tune
the correction:

Sets the brush tip. Click the arrow next to the brush sample, choose a brush category from the Brushes pop‑up menu, and then select a brush thumbnail.

Size

Sets the size of the brush, in pixels. Drag the Size slider
or enter a size in the text box.

Flow

Sets the rate of saturation change. Drag the Flow pop‑up
slider or enter a value in the text box.

Drag over the part of the image you want to modify.

Change the color of an object

The Replace Color command replaces a specific color in an image. You can set the hue, saturation, and lightness of the replacement color.

Choose Enhance > Adjust Color > Replace Color.

Select a display option under the image thumbnail:

Selection

Displays the mask, which looks like a black and white version
of the image, in the preview box.

Image

Displays the image in the preview box. This option is useful
when you are working with a magnified image or have limited screen
space.

Click the color picker button, and then click the color you want to change in the image or in the preview box. Use the color picker + tool to add colors, or use the color picker – tool to remove colors to keep them from changing.

Drag the Fuzziness slider to control the degree to which
related colors are included in the selection.

Precisely convert to black and
white

The Convert To Black And White command lets you choose a specific conversion style to be applied to the image. This is unlike the Remove Color command, which automatically converts to black and white for you.

In the Convert To Black And White dialog box, the available image styles help you compare and choose from different conversion presets. Select a style and then use the available sliders to fine-tune the conversion.

Convert to black and white

A. Displays Before and After views B. Select
a style C. Adjust intensity

Open an image, and select an area or layer to convert. If you do not select an area or layer, the entire image is converted.

Note:

To experiment with black and white conversion
while preserving the original photo, convert a duplicate layer.

Automatically convert to black
and white

The Remove
Color command converts to black and white by assigning equal red, green,
and blue values to each pixel in an RGB image. The overall brightness
of each pixel remains constant. This command has the same effect
as setting Saturation to -100 in the Hue/Saturation dialog box.

To adjust a specific image area, select it with
one of the selection tools. If no selection is made, the adjustment
applies to the entire image.

Choose Enhance > Adjust Color >
Remove Color.

Add custom presets for black and
white conversion

You can manually add custom presets to the black and white converter by editing a specific text file.

Note:

Adding custom presets for conversion to black and white is a task for advanced users.

Close the Photoshop Elements, and navigate to the folder that contains the bwconvert.txt file:

Following the same naming convention as the presets already
in the file, add your new preset and give it a unique name.

Save the file (keeping the original filename).

Start the Photoshop Elements and choose Enhance > Convert To Black And White to view the presets.

Add color to a grayscale image

You can colorize an entire grayscale image,
or select areas to colorize with different colors. For example,
you can select a person’s hair and color it brown, and then add
pink to the person’s cheeks after making another selection.

Note:

If the image you are coloring is in grayscale mode, convert it into RGB by choosing Image > Mode > RGB Color.